Embodiment provide recovering multicast data traffic during spine reload in software defined networks by identifying interfaces available between spine switches and a public network in a site; identifying Group Internet Protocol-outer (GIPo) addresses that handle multicast communications between endpoints associated together in a bridge domain, wherein the endpoints are connected via leaf switches in communication with the spine switches in a Clos topology; assigning each GIPo address to one virtual interface group (ViG) of a plurality of ViGs to generate GIPo-to-ViG mappings; distributing the GIPo-to-ViG mappings to the spine and leaf switches; assigning each ViG to one Interface as first ViG-to-Interface mappings; distributing the first ViG-to-Interface mappings to the spine and leaf switches and; when a number of available Interfaces changes, re-assigning each ViG to one currently-available Interface as second ViG-to-Interface mappings; and distributing the second ViG-to-Interface mappings to the spine switches and to the leaf switches.

One embodiment describes a network system. The system includes a primary enclosure including a network switch system that includes a plurality of physical interface ports. A first one of the plurality of physical interface ports is to communicatively couple to a network. The system further includes a sub-enclosure comprising a network interface card (NIC) to which a computer system is communicatively coupled and a downlink extension module (DEM) that is communicatively coupled with the NIC and a second one of the plurality of physical interface ports of the network switch system to provide network connectivity of the computer system to the network via the network switch system.

An electronic device for a communications satellite for beamforming, channelization, and/or routing is implemented using a digital folded architecture to reduce the number of serial communication paths and provide more flexible routing and network configurability and scalability. A method for configuring the switching network of a system comprising multiple electronic devices allows the system to be dynamically reconfigured to implement different types of networks.

Techniques are provided for sorting input data values using a sorting circuit. The sorting circuit includes a single stage of comparators coupled to a bank of registers. Multiplexors and a sequencer are used to route the comparator outputs back to the comparator inputs such that the comparators may be re-used over multiple sorting phases so as to order an input sequence of data values into a partially-sorted sequence or into a completely-sorted sequence that is monotonically increasing or decreasing. By re-using the comparators, the hardware required for such sorting is significantly reduced relative to conventional techniques. Also described are techniques for median filtering, which use a sorted sequence as output by the sorting circuit described herein.

Heterogeneous capabilities in an overlay fabric may be provided. First, it may be determined that a first link and a second link support a feature. Then the first link and the second link may be traversed with traffic between a host in a first Endpoint Group (EPG) connected to a first leaf switch and a second host in a second EPG connected to a second leaf switch when a topology preference for the feature is indicated for the traffic.

VLSI layouts of generalized multi-stage and pyramid networks for broadcast, unicast and multicast connections are presented using only horizontal and vertical links with spacial locality exploitation. The VLSI layouts employ shuffle exchange links where outlet links of cross links from switches in a stage in one sub-integrated circuit block are connected to inlet links of switches in the succeeding stage in another sub-integrated circuit block so that said cross links are either vertical links or horizontal and vice versa. Furthermore the shuffle exchange links are employed between different sub-integrated circuit blocks so that spacially nearer sub-integrated circuit blocks are connected with shorter links compared to the shuffle exchange links between spacially farther sub-integrated circuit blocks. In one embodiment the sub-integrated circuit blocks are arranged in a hypercube arrangement in a two-dimensional plane. The VLSI layouts exploit the benefits of significantly lower cross points, lower signal latency, lower power and full connectivity with significantly fast compilation. The VLSI layouts with spacial locality exploitation presented are applicable to generalized multi-stage and pyramid networks, generalized folded multi-stage and pyramid networks, generalized butterfly fat tree and pyramid networks, generalized multi-link multi-stage and pyramid networks, generalized folded multi-link multi-stage and pyramid networks, generalized multi-link butterfly fat tree and pyramid networks, generalized hypercube networks, and generalized cube connected cycles networks for speedup of s1. The embodiments of VLSI layouts are useful in wide target applications such as FPGAs, CPLDs, pSoCs, ASIC placement and route tools, networking applications, parallel & distributed computing, and reconfigurable computing.

Heterogeneous capabilities in an overlay fabric may be provided. First, it may be determined that a first link and a second link support a feature. Then the first link and the second link may be traversed with traffic between a host in a first Endpoint Group (EPG) connected to a first leaf switch and a second host in a second EPG connected to a second leaf switch when a topology preference for the feature is indicated for the traffic.

Embodiments herein describe using translation mappings and security contracts to establish interconnects and policies between switching fabrics at different sites to create a unified fabric. In one embodiment, a multi-site controller can stretch endpoint groups (EPGs) between the sites so that a host or application in a first site can communicate with a host or application in a second site which is assigned to the same stretched EPG, despite the two sites have different namespaces. Further, the shadow EPGs can be formed to facilitate security contracts between EPGs in different sites. Each site can store namespace translation mapping that enable the site to convert namespace information in packets received from a different site into its own namespace values. As a result, independent bridging and routing segments in the various sites can be interconnected as well as providing application accessibility across different fabrics with independent and private namespaces.

Embodiments herein describe using translation mappings and security contracts to establish interconnects and policies between switching fabrics at different sites to create a unified fabric. In one embodiment, a multi-site controller can stretch endpoint groups (EPGs) between the sites so that a host or application in a first site can communicate with a host or application in a second site which is assigned to the same stretched EPG, despite the two sites have different namespaces. Further, the shadow EPGs can be formed to facilitate security contracts between EPGs in different sites. Each site can store namespace translation mapping that enable the site to convert namespace information in packets received from a different site into its own namespace values. As a result, independent bridging and routing segments in the various sites can be interconnected as well as providing application accessibility across different fabrics with independent and private namespaces.

An interconnect as a switch module (ICAS module) comprising n port groups, each port group comprising n1 interfaces, and an interconnecting network implementing a full mesh topology where each port group comprising a plurality of interfaces each connects an interface of one of the other port groups, respectively. The ICAS module may be optically or electrically implemented. According to the embodiments, the ICAS module may be used to construct a stackable switching device and a multi-unit switching device, to replace a data center fabric switch, and to build a new, high-efficient, and cost-effective data center.